Links, 4.13.11

Call it spring fever, call it tax season, call it anything you like — perhaps Late Links? Sorry about that. How about these:

Bohemian rhapsody: Via the Prague Post, an interview with Julius Müller, founder of Toledot, a nonprofit Jewish family history center based in Prague. A major focus is digitization: Toledot is working on getting dozens of important genealogical source volumes online for those interested in Czech-Jewish ancestry.

Missing numbers: In Mobile, Ala., the regular “Yesterday’s News” feature has a noticeable dearth of yesterdays from 1860-61. The problem: a gap in the otherwise extensive microfilm collection at the public library. A librarian notes there are occasional dark mutterings about “underhanded manipulation,” given the crucial timepoint, but says the newspapers just aren’t extant, despite extensive efforts to find something. “It isn’t the only [gap], though it’s the biggest one.”

Real people: At RealScreen, Kelly Anderson describes how National Geographic Channel used a genealogy-based approach to craft a “people’s history” in its three-part series on the American Civil War.

A thousand times no: At the BBC blog Anglophenia, we hear Ricky Gervais explain why he will never appear on Who Do You Think You Are? So for the two of you who were writing the BBC wanting to know when the Gervais episode airs, just stop.